Over the Edge
by Meowiegirl
Summary: Four of the Shinigami are captured by Muraki so that he can figure out how to kill a Shinigami. What's this? Ukyou's dead, and Muraki's gone mad(der)? Pooooor Shinigamis... Yaoi- TatWat, TsuHis, MurOri


Over the Edge  
  


A/N: Well, I'm back, with another dark and creepy story. (My other one was for Yu-Gi-Oh... O.o) This one has yaoi aplenty (yay!)- Tatsumi/Watari, Tsuzuki/Hisoka, and Muraki/Oriya. I don't own Yami no Matsuei.  
  


Notes for the story:  
  


Tatsumi's first name is Seiichrou, but I am calling him Tatsumi to avoid confusion. Tsuzuki's first name is Asato, and Watari's first name is Yutaka. Hisoka is called by his first name in the series.  
  


There is going to be blood, gore, Shinigami-torture and Muraki, so be warned.  
  


//blah blah blah// -- thoughts, :: blah blah blah :: ---- letters, postcards, notes  
  


Now, on to the story!

_________________________________________________  
  


As Seiichirou Tatsumi walked down the hall of his workplace, he thought to himself about several things. One was the blessed silence in the building today, as Tsuzuki and Hisoka were at their desks doing paperwork (unless they were finished, in which case they were probably doing something UNDER one of their desks), the GuShoShin were in their library, and Watari was in his laboratory. This train of thought led to another one about a certain owl-toting blonde scientist whose laboratory he was currently approaching.  
  


The silence was broken as Tatsumi actually reached said blonde scientist's laboratory and noticed that loud music was emanating from the room. Tatsumi opened the door, and nearly jumped backwards due to how loudly the music was blasting. Watari was dancing to the rock music- twirling around, head banging, and occasionally "playing" air guitar. There was a puddle of something purple on the floor, and Tatsumi hoped it wasn't corrosive or otherwise volatile, because Watari appeared to be heading right for it. Surely enough, he twirled right into the puddle, promptly lost his footing, and fell.  
  


//That's odd...// Watari thought, //I don't recall the floor being this soft, or warm.// He looked up into Tatsumi's eyes; the secretary had caught him at the last minute. //What beautiful eyes! I wish I could kiss him right now, but he'd hate me if I did, I just know it. Besides, doesn't he still like Tsuzuki-san?//   
  


Meanwhile, Tatsumi was having similar thoughts. //Watari-san is so lovely right now. What would happen if I kissed him? No, he wouldn't like that. He probably thinks of me only as a friend and co-worker, or worse, he actually dislikes me... What am I going to do?//  
  


The moment was broken when Tsuzuki ran into Watari's laboratory and skidded to a halt before he could slip in the puddle. Watari and Tatsumi stood up, both noticeably blushing, and brushed themselves off.  


"Konoe-Kachou's got a case for you. It involves Muraki," Tsuzuki panted. He looked disheveled and his tie was on wrong.  
  


"Well, we won't keep you from whatever you were doing before," Watari replied knowingly, with a grin.  
  


Tsuzuki grinned back and ran back down the hallway.  
  


"Well, you heard him, Watari-san, let's go!," Tatsumi said, and left to go put on his jacket. It was spring on earth, but the two Shinigami had no idea whether or not it would be raining or chilly.  
  


Soon, the two men found themselves in Kyoto, where Muraki had been creating a disturbance once again. They had thought that the evil man had died that night in Kyoto when Tsuzuki had tried to kill himself, but apparently they were wrong. The case that they had been assigned had all the signs of something that Muraki would do to lure the Shinigami to him: a spate of murders, Muraki's hair at each one, and once, a message written in blood to his "dearest Asato". Muraki had even dropped a slip of paper with the address of the building that he was currently operating out of. It was too easy and almost certainly a trap, but perhaps things were working out for the Shinigami this time, and the slip of paper had really been an accident.  
  


After an hour or two (Watari got them lost twice), they found the building and entered it. It was a mistake that they would regret; after standing in the dark for a moment, the lights switched on to reveal a bare, windowless room with a doorway leading off into a hall, and Muraki himself, as well as a small army of reanimated corpses. The shadows around Tatsumi began to move ominously, and the corpses surged forward. After several seconds, three of the corpses had knocked Watari unconscious, and were dragging him away. Tatsumi began to fight the corpses with their own shadows, but he was unable to free Watari. Finally, Tatsumi realized that the only way to save Watari was to leave and come back with Hisoka and Tsuzuki. Still fighting, Tatsumi backed towards the door, and after what seemed like an eternity, landed on his back in the bright mid-day sun. He teleported back to his office as fast as he could.   
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


Tsuzuki was sitting on Hisoka's desk and chatting away with him quite happily, as both had finished their paperwork. Hisoka said something that caused Tsuzuki to laugh and kiss him full on the lips. From where he sat, Hajime Terazuma glared.   
  


//It's not enough for that purple-eyed moron to babble constantly about nothing. No. Now he has to sit there making out with his boyfriend while I'm trying to do work.// Terazuma glared at Tsuzuki some more, and finally spat out, "Do you mind not doing THAT on the desk? Some of us are trying to work here!"  
  


Tsuzuki and Hisoka got up off of Hisoka's desk. Hisoka, blushing profusely, sat down and took out a book. Tsuzuki sat down next to Hisoka and embraced him. Suddenly, a wild-looking Tatsumi ran in. He was bleeding from several places and tears were running down his face.  
  


Everyone rushed over to where Tatsumi stood.  
  


"Tatsumi-san! What happened?," Wakaba asked, concerned.  
  


"Will you be alright?," Tsuzuki asked.  
  


"What happened to Watari-san?," Hisoka questioned.  
  


"Muraki's got him," Tatsumi whispered, before he lost consciousness.  
  


**************

One hour later

**************  
  


Hisoka sat with Tatsumi in the infirmary. The Shinigami had drawn straws to see who would wait with Tatsumi for the first "shift" of six hours, and Hisoka had the honor of trying to comfort him if he woke up anytime soon.  
  


Hisoka mulled over the situation. //This is so odd. Tatsumi-san never acts like this. I hope Muraki didn't do anything too awful to him. This is all my fault for not telling anyone that I knew Muraki wasn't dead. If Watari's been killed I won't be able to live with myself.//  
  


Several minutes later, Tatsumi began to wake up. The first thing he did was to ask about Watari, and when he did, Hisoka sensed so many strong emotions radiating off of him.  
  


"You love him, don't you?," Hisoka asked softly after a moment of thought. "You love him, and you're afraid to tell him because you think he'll hate you."  
  


"Yes," Tatsumi replied bitterly. "And now he's dead for all I know, because of my stupidity!"  
  


"Watari's not dead."  
  


"He's not?"  
  


"No."  
  


"How can you be sure?"  
  


Hisoka winced inside, due to the emotions that he was receiving from Watari, and the thought of telling Tatsumi how he knew.  
  


"I can feel some of his pain. They're putting him through hell, Tatsumi-san."  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


Watari sat in a dank cell in what he assumed was the basement of the building in which he'd been captured. The cell was about ten feet by ten feet, with a small bathroom attached and a pile of blankets in the corner. He looked through the bars and saw a sterile white hallway. Every now and then, one of the burly reanimated corpses would pass by, glaring at him. After what he estimated to be half an hour, a pyjama-looking outfit was thrown through the bars. He changed into it, but hid his clothes in the corner. After the corpse walked away, Watari took out a pen and pencil from one of the pockets of his lab coat, drew a stick figure, and willed it to live. Nothing happened. Then, he tried to teleport. Once again, nothing happened. Watari had been suspicious that the cell was warded, and he was right. There was no way for him to escape. Several minutes later, a corpse walked into his cell, knocked him unconscious, and carried him down the hall to Muraki's sterile white laboratory.  
  


"Well, well," Muraki smirked, "Look what the cat's dragged in. I suppose I should start experimenting. And you," now he addressed the corpse, "the hallway's warded. You don't have to knock him out."  
  


Watari was strapped to the wall, and Muraki walked over and administered a shot of some sort so that he would regain consciousness. Once Watari was awake again, Muraki began to tell him what was going to happen to him.  
  


"I am trying to find out how to kill a Shinigami without calling down that blasted fire serpent and burning my whole building. Any ideas? No? Okay then, I'm just going to have to do trial and error," Muraki announced.  
  


"No," Watari whispered.  
  


Muraki glared at him and took a knife out from a drawer. He walked towards poor Watari, and when he got within range, stabbed him straight through the heart. Watari screamed in pain even though he had convinced himself not to, so that he would not give Muraki any satisfaction.  
  


"You are beautiful when you're like that, but you will never compare to my lovely Asato. You are a mere second or third," Muraki spat.  
  


"What about your fiancé?," Watari asked.  
  


"She is dead."  
  


"Oh God."  
  


//He's going to be even worse now. He's been cut off from that last link to reality and set afloat. There's nothing to stop him from actually killing us now.// Watari shuddered as he had this thought.  


"You're not going to die, are you?," Muraki muttered, and bandaged up the wound on Watari's chest. "Take him back."  
  


Later, back in his cell, Watari thought over those words that Muraki had said to him about never comparing to Tsuzuki.  
  


"Oh, how ironic," he whispered to himself, tears starting to make their way down his cheeks. "That's exactly what Tatsumi thinks too, probably."  
  


Watari cried himself to sleep that night.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


The next morning, even Tsuzuki was at work early, to everyone's surprise. Tsuzuki, Tatsumi and Hisoka were going to find their friend and hopefully, arrest Muraki. Tsuzuki grabbed a donut on the way out, his only one that morning; he was very worried. The three of them teleported to the building where Watari was captured, but as soon as they appeared there, they were knocked unconscious.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


There was more activity than usual in the corridor outside Watari's cell today. Watari was too depressed and in too much pain to really move (he found out the hard way that the wards had also stopped his healing powers), so he lay curled up in his little makeshift bed. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice protesting very loudly, a sharp slap, and then the voice was quiet. Watari thought he knew who it was, and he was proved right when, several minutes later, Hisoka was being carried, unconscious, down the hallway, and put in the cell to Watari's right.  
  


//Oh God, they've got Bon... That means the rest of them must be captured, they would never just leave Bon to die. Tsuzuki loves him too much, and Tatsumi would probably follow Tsuzuki to the end of the world.// Watari's thoughts had turned bitter at the last moment, and he didn't see Tsuzuki or Tatsumi being carried down the hallway. It was probably better that he didn't see Tsuzuki, because all of the light was gone from his eyes. Tsuzuki was, however, put in the same cell with Hisoka, and Watari could hear him sobbing through the wall, thinking that the little empath was dead.  
  


Watari was forced to stop thinking when Tatsumi was thrown into his cell. Watari gingerly moved towards Tatsumi, and gasped. Tatsumi had a bleeding cut on his forehead, another one on his neck, and at least one of his ribs appeared to be broken. He'd lost his glasses as well. Watari started to tear the clothes that he'd worn when he came down here, not the pyjamas, into strips to make bandages.  
  


"W-w-watari-san? That you?," Tatsumi asked. Watari sighed; that man was even formal when he was hurt badly. Tatsumi went on. "I tried to protect 'em. Tsuzuki-san and Kurosaki-san? You know? For you. All for you."  
  


Watari just smiled sadly and bandaged up Tatsumi's wounds. Oddly enough, there hadn't been any accusatory tone in Tatsumi's words whatsoever, just...  
  


//Tenderness?//  
  


Only moments after Watari had this comforting thought, he was dragged out to Muraki's laboratory.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


Hisoka was still unconscious. Tsuzuki could hear loud screams coming from down the hall, and he knew they were from Watari, but that was not top priority right now. What was top priority was the little blonde empath who was unconscious on their makeshift bed of blankets. He was breathing shallowly and occasionally whimpering, but other than that, he didn't move.  
  


"'Soka?," Tsuzuki whispered, gently tapping Hisoka. Nothing. He decided to try again. "'Soka-chan?"  
  


Hisoka's eyes flew open a few seconds later. He shook his head and then threw his arms around Tsuzuki and started to sob.  
  


"I'm scared, Asato," Hisoka whispered. "I don't want you to die."  
  


Tsuzuki was stunned. For Hisoka to admit that he was frightened, meant that a normal human would have been running around screaming out of sheer panic. Just then, a pair of pyjamas was tossed in. They were white, and Tsuzuki had an odd feeling that they had once belonged to Muraki.  
  


"There's only one pair of pyjamas here," Hisoka observed.  
  


"Well, you take the shirt and I'll take the pants. The pants would be way too big on you," Tsuzuki replied, and they put on the pyjamas.   
  


"'Soka? You should wash your face. You've got tear stains," Tsuzuki said, and Hisoka went into the tiny, dingy bathroom and washed his face.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


Later, Watari was brought back to the cell. He wasn't unconscious, but his face was white from pain, and a trail of bright red blood followed the corpse that was carrying him.  
  


Tatsumi, who was now in the pyjama-like clothes as well, picked Watari up and placed him on the blankets. "What happened, Watari-san?"  
  


Watari lifted up his shirt to reveal several bloody cuts across his chest and stomach. They were very deep and still bleeding.  
  


"Good God," Tatsumi whispered in horror. "Why...?"  
  


"Muraki wants to see what can kill a Shinigami. That's why the cells, the hallway, and the laboratory are warded. To keep us from healing," Watari explained quietly.  
  


"He knows that being cut like this can't kill a Shinigami, so why did he do that to you?," Tatsumi asked.  
  


"I was afraid you'd ask. He did this to find the right place to inject one of his potions. It's supposed to kill a Shinigami slowly-," Watari paused to wince, "-and painfully."  
  


"No," Tatsumi whispered. He moved closer to Watari until he was sitting next to him, and then spoke. "Watari-san, there's something I want to tell you, and it's become painfully apparent that I've put it off for too long."  
  


//Oh man, here it is. He's going to tell me that he knows I love him and that he's not interested.// At this thought, Watari winced and closed his eyes. What came next was totally unexpected.  
  


"Watari-san, I've loved you ever since the Kyoto incident."  
  


Watari leaned over to rest his head on Tatsumi's shoulder. He was becoming too tired to stay awake for much longer. "I love you too."  
  


Tatsumi smiled, a genuine smile, and kissed Watari on the lips.  
  


"You can call me Yutaka, you know. We're not at work," Watari said.  
  


"Well, we sure aren't at some tropical vacation spot," Tatsumi sighed. "Oh, and you can call me Seiichirou, then."  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


In the cell next door, Tsuzuki heard everything that Tatsumi and Watari said. He was happy that they'd gotten together, as he'd known that each had loved the other since the Kyoto incident. He estimated it to be about ten o'clock at night, and he was watching over Hisoka while he slept.  
  


"My poor little 'Soka-chan," Tsuzuki whispered to himself, and stroked Hisoka's hair.  
  


Only a minute later, Tsuzuki was grabbed, and dragged down the hall to Muraki's laboratory.   
  


"My beautiful Tsuzuki," Muraki drawled, and then strapped him to a metal table. "I may have to go to some extra measures for you, my love, seeing as your regenerative powers surpass even a Shinigami's."  
  


Muraki took out a knife and began to etch kanji into Tsuzuki's chest. "I love you, you know that, don't you? I love you so much that I want to kill you. No, I love you so much that I'm GOING to kill you. But first I'll kill my doll, your lover, Hisoka. Do you want to watch?"  
  


Tears rolled down Tsuzuki's face. He knew what the kanji would say, he knew that he would look down and see "Property of Kazutaka Muraki" written across his chest in flesh and blood. He also knew what would come next. He was right.  
  


"My beautiful, sweet Tsuzuki, you may think of that as our marriage. And now we must consummate it," Muraki whispered, and smiled.  
  


"NO! Get away from me!," Tsuzuki shouted. "I don't love you, I love Hisoka! GET AWAY FROM ME, MURAKI!"  
  


As Tsuzuki screamed, he kicked his leg up in the air and caught Muraki's side, sending him to the floor. Tsuzuki was surprised; after all, hadn't he been strapped down? He got his answer when he looked at his leg and discovered that the strap had broken. He also discovered that Muraki ws getting up from where he had fallen.  
  


"Tsuzuki...," Muraki's voice was soft and husky. "Tsuzuki, you are the most beautiful thing alive when you look like this, all flushed and angry."   
  


Muraki bent down and captured Tsuzuki's lips in a fierce kiss, and Tsuzuki gave up. //I'm sorry, 'Soka-chan.//, he thought. Tears made little pathways down his face, and he sighed. //I wish this was all a dream, and I would wake up with Hisoka in my arms- Wait... That's it... Asleep, I can fall asleep or go unconscious, and he'll stop...//  
  


Tsuzuki went limp on the table, and Muraki stood up to check Tsuzuki's vital signs. He found that Tsuzuki had, for some reason, gone unconscious.  
  


"Ah well, we can always finish another time," he muttered, and motioned for one of he corpses to remove Tsuzuki.  
  


When Tsuzuki was returned to the cell, he woke up very quickly and crawled over to where Hisoka had fallen asleep waiting for him.  
  


"'Soka-chan?," he whispered.  
  


"Asato?"  
  


"You feeling okay?"  
  


"Yeah."  
  


"Be careful, Hisoka. Muraki has an army of corpses working for him, and they steal you away once a day to be experimented on by Muraki."  
  


"Asato, promise me one thing."  
  


"Anything."  
  


"That you won't die."  
  


"I'll do my best, 'Soka."  
  


"That's more than enough. You know I love you, right?"  
  


"Of course. Did any food come yet?"  
  


"Actually, yes. I saved some for you."  
  


Hisoka passed a tray with some dumplings on it over to Tsuzuki, who began to gobble them down, but stopped abruptly.   
  


"Hisoka?," Tsuzuki asked.  
  


"Hm?"  
  


"The plate's practically full! You only had one or two, didn't you?"  
  


Hisoka looked down at the floor.  
  


"You have to eat, 'Soka-chan, you'll get sick!"  
  


"No, I really don't want to."  
  


"Hisoka, I promised not to die on you, you should promise the same!"  
  


"Fine, I promise."  
  


"You feel sick, don't you?"  
  


Hisoka mumbled something inaudibly.  
  


"I thought so," Tsuzuki said. "You'll feel better if we just curl up together and sleep."  
  


Hisoka nodded in agreement. The two Shinigamis laid down on some of the ragged blankets, and pulled the remaining ones over themselves. Hisoka was asleep in seconds, his head resting on Tsuzuki's chest, and Tsuzuki placed his arms around Hisoka and quickly fell asleep as well.  
  


******  
  


It had been about two weeks since they were captured, when one day, Hisoka was taken to Muraki's laboratory, which was completely normal. What happened when he came back, however, was not.  
  


Hisoka was tossed back into the cell, and Tsuzuki caught him even more effortlessly than he could before. His big green eyes were closed, but he was conscious; he kept trying to speak. Tsuzuki carried him over to their bed, and had figured out that something was wrong with Hisoka's mouth, but what he found was worse than he'd expected. Apparently, Muraki had poured boiling water down Hisoka's throat, and now Hisoka was bleeding. If Tsuzuki didn't do something soon, Hisoka would choke on his own blood and die.  
  


Tsuzuki walked into the bathroom and picked up the only fairly clean washcloth in there. He wet it with cold water, and then walked back out and washed most of the blood from Hisoka's mouth.  
  


"Aaaasssssssaaaa...toooo...," Hisoka moaned.  
  


"Oh, 'Soka, I'm sorry, I know it hurts. I don't know what I'm supposed to do in this situation, I'm just playing by ear. But your throat might not hurt as much if you don't talk a lot," Tsuzuki sadly replied.  
  


Then the moaning started up in the next cell.   
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


"Seiichirou, I'm not going to last for another two weeks," Watari sobbed.  
  


He was sitting in Tatsumi's lap, and Tatsumi felt the warning sniffles that ensured an awful cold.  
  


"You will, Yutaka," Tatsumi reassured Watari.  
  


They could hear Hisoka having one of his wounds cleaned out in the next cell. Something made this wall thinner than the others, or at least one could hear more through it.  
  


"I just want to escape from here! I want to live, and I want you and Tsuzuki and Bon to live also," Watari was clinging to Tatsumi as if for dear life.  
  


"You're feeling well, right?," Tatsumi asked.  
  


"Oddly, yes. It's the best I've felt since I was injected," Watari answered. "I think it's the calm before the storm, though. This sucks, I'm going to die a virgin for the second time." Watari laughed softly, "I know, bad joke."  
  


"No it's not," Tatsumi said softly. "Do you want to do something about the fact?"  
  


"With you, I'd love to."  
  


They pretty much stopped talking after that.  
  


One hour later, the two of them lay on their bed of makeshift blankets, just relaxing. Watari's head was resting on Tatsumi's shoulder, and every now and then, Tatsumi would kiss Watari's face. Their happiness was interrupted, however, by a bemused Tsuzuki shouting at them through the wall.  
  


"Finally! You two quieted down!," he snapped, and then realized how cruel his words sounded. "I'm sorry. Hisoka's hurt badly, I think he's dying. Please, Yutaka, I know it's impossible, but please come up with some plan to save us. I'll kill myself if 'Soka dies!"  
  


"Asato," Watari began to move over to part of he wall where he saw something odd, "I think I've found something that will help if I come up with a final plan."  
  


"What?"  
  


"It's a hole. A hole in the wall, that's why we can hear each other so well. And it's just big enough to slip rolled-up messages through."  
  


As soon as Watari said this, Tatsumi was dragged out to Muraki's laboratory. When he arrived and was strapped down, Muraki walked over to him.  
  


"Well, well. You again. You've been unwilling to cooperate in the past two weeks, but maybe today's the day...," Muraki began.  
  


"You get away from me," Tatsumi growled from between clenched teeth.  
  


"Afraid I can't do that."  
  


Muraki took out some sharp instruments from a cabinet. "Now, let's see if just sheer pain can cause you to die."  
  


Two hours later, Tatsumi had screamed himself hoarse, and indeed wanted to die, but his strong Shinigami body wouldn't let him. Blood dripped from cuts all over his chest, back, and legs. Muraki came over to him and started to bandage him up.  
  


"If it gets too much, just signal, and I'll have one of my... employees... take you to the infirmary. I can't have a good specimen dying from something other than what I do in here," Muraki said, and motioned for Tatsumi to be brought back to the cell.  
  


"Seii?!," Watari exclaimed when he saw Tatsumi's wounds. "He did that to you? Oh no, you'll die... This is all my fault."  
  


"No, Yutaka, it is not!," Tatsumi replied sharply. "If I die, you have to keep on living, for me."  
  


"Then do the same for me, Seiichirou."  
  


"I will."  
  


**************  
  


Two weeks after that, Watari was still turning the question of how to escape over and over in his mind. This was one of his top priorities, other than getting all of them out of there alive. This was becoming harder and harder by the day; he was slowly dying, Tatsumi had caught some sort of illness that Watari didn't remember learning about in school, and Tsuzuki and Hisoka weren't much better off (of course, Watari couldn't see them, but he could infer).  
  


Tatsumi struggled to sit up in their bed, and after a while, he was able to. "Yutaka, love," he began, "If we don't get out of here in a couple of days, I know I'll die here."  
  


Watari, who was sitting next to Tatsumi, held him and whispered, "Don't even think about that. Don't you want to get better?"  
  


"If this is the alternative to death, no."  
  


Watari wept. He wept for himself, for Tsuzuki, for Hisoka, but most of all for the proud Meifu Secretary who'd been broken by Muraki. He wept because he was dying, too, and he wanted it, just as an escape.  
  


//But Yutaka//, his mind warned him, //Once you escape, you can never come back.//  
  


"Please get better, Seii," Watari whispered.  
  


//Oh, Enma... Why didn't I think of it before! I'm the biggest moron in the history of the afterlife!//, Watari realized. He'd just been almost literally hit over the head with a solution.  
  


His thinking was interrupted when a note from Tsuzuki.   
  


:: Dear Yutaka,  
  


Hisoka is very sick. In fact, he is dying, and I fear that I am too. Please help us.  
  


-Asato ::  
  


Watari replied right away.  
  


:: Dear Asato,  
  


Flag down one of Muraki's servants, give him Hisoka, and say "Infirmary". Tell Bon to give me a thumbs up if it's not warded, and a thumbs down if it is.  
  


-Yutaka ::  
  


And so, several minutes later, Hisoka was carried away to the infirmary. He returned in a half-hour, fully-healed but still quite weak. Watari, who was watching vigilantly. He got what he'd hoped for. A thumbs up and a tiny smile from Hisoka.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


"'Soka?," Tsuzuki asked.   
  


Hisoka looked completely healed after his trip to the infirmary. Tsuzuki was covered in bleeding wounds, and he was sick.  
  


"Asato, go to the- AAAAAAHHH! GET OFF!," Hisoka was interrupted by a pair of large hands grabbing him to drag him off to Muraki's office.  
  


Once he was in Muraki's office, Hisoka was strapped down to the table, and Muraki looked down at him with a hungry expression in his eyes.  
  


"You are nearly as beautiful as darling Tsuzuki, my doll," Muraki whispered, kissing Hisoka's face.  
  


"No! Get off of me!," Hisoka shouted.  
  


"But, my lovely doll, Tsuzuki has made it quite clear several times that he does not want me. That leaves only you, my love. But that can wait."  
  


Muraki injected Hisoka with something, and Hisoka felt his own body go limp.  
  


"It's a poison, Hisoka. I want to see if a poison can kill a warded Shinigami," Muraki said.  
  


"It won't be able to. You've already tried that on me, don't you remember?," Hisoka spat.  
  


"Shut up!," Muraki replied harshly, and took out a knife. He made several cuts on Hisoka's neck and back, re-writing the curse he'd put on Hisoka in blood.  
  


Hisoka's entire body began to feel like it was burning, and he thrashed about, causing himself to bleed even more.  
  


"You are beautiful like that; screaming, dying, covered in your own blood," Muraki murmured.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


Oriya knew which building Muraki was hiding in, experimenting on the Shinigami. He knew, and he was upset, and jealous. He couldn't believe that Muraki would do something like this to him, of all people.  
  


//Doesn't being his first love and favorite love until that Shinigami came along mean anything?//, Oriya fumed.  
  


Oriya reached the door to the building, and opened it. He knew the way to Muraki's laboratory here; the two had spent many nights together before the Shinigami were captured. The rather irate man walked down the stairs and through the long hallways, past the infirmary and the cells, until he reached Muraki's office.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


In their cell, Watari nudged Tatsumi, and pointed at the rather irate brown-haired man who was quickly walking by.  
  


"Isn't that the man who loves Muraki?," he asked.  
  


"Yes, Yutaka. Why?," Tatsumi replied.  
  


"Oh, no reason," Watari replied, and the wheels in his mind began to turn.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


Hisoka let out a broken sob as Muraki kissed him on the lips again. This time, the older man slipped his tongue into Hisoka's mouth, and Hisoka began to sob even louder. Muraki started to unbutton the oversized long-sleeved pyjama top that Hisoka was wearing, but stopped and just held Hisoka in his arms.  
  


"My beautiful doll," he laughed softly.  


Hisoka said nothing. His eyes had gone blank.  
  


Suddenly, the door opened, and in walked Oriya. He let out a little sob, and Muraki turned around.  
  


"Kazutaka!," Oriya gasped angrily. Hisoka began to button his pyjama top back on.  
  


Muraki had walked over to the long-haired man and was now holding him as he sobbed. "It's okay, Oriya, it was just a check-up."  
  


Hisoka glared at him, having come back to reality. //You nearly raped me again! How many times have you tried to do that to Asato?//, Hisoka thought. He wished he had his Shinigami powers.  
  


Muraki gestured to one of his "employees", and the re-animated corpse carried Hisoka none too gently back to his cell.  
  


"Asato?," Hisoka whispered, curling up next to his boyfriend.  
  


"Hm?," was Tsuzuki's response.  
  


"Muraki tried to... He tried to... Oh, Enma...," Hisoka couldn't finish the sentence and began to sob into the blankets.  
  


"He tried to rape you?," Tsuzuki finished.  
  


Hisoka nodded his head.  
  


"Me too," Tsuzuki replied after a while. He leaned over to kiss Hisoka.  
  


"Please! Don't kiss me! Just, I don't know, hold me if you want to, but please, I need some time to get over it," Hisoka whispered.  
  


Tsuzuki held Hisoka in his arms, and Hisoka was comforted.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


Watari was lying in Tatsumi's lap, dying. It was getting harder and harder for him to breathe, and he knew that he would die before the next day ended.  
  


"Seii?," Watari asked.  
  


"What?," Tatsumi answered.  
  


"If I die, promise me you'll bury me in Kyoto," Watari smiled sadly up at Tatsumi.  
  


"Yutaka, you won't die. You have a plan to get us out, remember?," Tatsumi reasoned. The truth was, he was even more afraid that Watari would die than Watari himself was.  
  


"I'm sad that I loved you for such a short time, Seii. You're a wonderful Shinigami."  
  


"So are you, Yutaka. Why won't this plan work?"  
  


"It will only work if Oriya and Muraki decide to 'make up' in the conventional way that most couples do."  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
  


"Well?! Explain all this, Kazutaka!," Oriya shouted. "I really made a mistake trusting you with my heart, didn't I? I thought you actually loved me."  
  


"I do love you, Oriya. You are my love, and the Shinigami are merely... my hobby," Muraki replied.  
  


"Before, it was Ukyou. Precious Ukyou. Whatever happened to her, anyway?," Oriya asked. He was still upset, but the anger was subsiding to more of a betrayed sadness.  
  


"She died."  
  


"Oh, Kazutaka, I'm sorry. Was she ill?"  
  


"No."  
  


"Oh. A car accident, then?"  
  


"An accident, yes, but not a car accident."  
  


"Yes?"  
  


"I killed her. I killed my Ukyou."  
  


"No, Kazutaka, you don't mean that. You can't!"  
  


"I do. It was a fight, over Asato darling, and she slapped me because I was coming home and muttering his name in my sleep, and just in general showing more affection to him than to her.

So, I slapped her in return, but she slipped, and broke her skull on the corner of a table. She died later that night."  
  


Oriya was amazed that Muraki could be so calm when talking about his own fiancé's death.   
  


"Kazutaka... Although you have done all of this," Oriya gestured around him, "I cannot find it in my heart to leave you. You are the one that I need."  
  


"I love you as well, my dear Oriya," Muraki whispered, and moved forward to kiss Oriya on the lips.  
  


//Our bodies fit perfectly against each other's.//, Oriya thought happily, as Muraki carried him over to the cot in the corner. //It's a sign that we were made for each other.//  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


"Asato? Asato?! ASATO! Wake up, please wake up!," Hisoka was screaming. He had sat up quickly only seconds after dozing off, when he realized that Tsuzuki's heart had stopped beating as strongly, and so much blood ran from all of the cuts on Hisoka's back and chest. It pooled around them, seeming to form a small lake.  
  


Finally, Tsuzuki woke up.   
  


"'Soka? You're bleeding, 'Soka," Tsuzuki mumbled.  
  


" I don't CARE, Asato! You're DYING!," Hisoka replied.  
  


"It's for the best."  
  


"No, Asato, you are not going to die, I won't let you. I saved your life one time, I'll do it again."  
  


"Can't, 'Soka."  
  


Hisoka sighed. He felt faint, like he might die any minute as well, and he knew it was because of all the blood that he'd lost.  
  


"'Soka, you're dying too," Tsuzuki murmured. He took Hisoka in his arms and held the blonde boy against his body. "Die with me, so we won't be lonely."  
  


They fell asleep this way, but neither of them died that night.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


The next morning, Tatsumi opened his eyes, which was becoming more of an effort every day, and gently shook Watari awake.  
  


"Yutaka...," he whispered.  
  


Watari didn't even open his eyes. "What, Seii?"  
  


"You're putting your plan into action today."  
  


"Oh, right. Are you clear on what to do?"  
  


"Crystal."  
  


"Kiss me in case I die before you save us."  
  


"You won't die, Yutaka, but I'll kiss you anyway."  
  


Tatsumi prepared himself mentally. When the big reanimated corpse came to drag him off to Muraki's laboratory, he pretended to struggle so that the corpse would not become suspicious.  
  


Tatsumi finally reached Muraki's laboratory, and when the corpse opened the door, he knew that Watari had been right. Muraki and Oriya lay asleep on the cot in the back corner of the laboratory, both obviously quite naked. When the corpse made a loud grunting noise, Muraki glared up at it, waved his hand in a gesture of dismissal, and muttered, "Infirmary."  
  


Tatsumi cheered inside his mind. Watari's plan had worked.  
  


Once the corpse brought Tatsumi to the sterile white infirmary, the Shadow Master got right to work. First, he killed the corpse, again, with its own shadow. Then, he sent his shadows down to the cells, to free his friends and bring them to the infirmary. When that was done, Tatsumi prepared to teleport, but first, he would have to do his final piece. He sent his shadows to destroy the roof of the building, and immediately after that, teleported back to the Meifu with his friends.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


"Kazutaka! What's going on?," Oriya shouted as bits of ceiling began to rain down on him.  
  


"I don't know, Oriya, now get under this desk!," Muraki shouted back.  
  


Oriya did so. It was a metal desk, and would probably protect the two of then unless something truly cataclysmic happened.   
  


"If this is the end, Kazutaka, I'm happy to spend it here in your arms," Oriya whispered in to Muraki's chest.  
  


"And I am happy to spend it here, holding you, my love," Muraki whispered back, and he and Oriya kissed passionately as the ceiling fell down around them.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


As soon as the four Shinigami returned to the Meifu, they began to heal. They were rushed to the infirmary anyway, of course, and remained there for a week, but they were much happier than they had been while in Muraki's "care".  
  


The day after the Shinigami returned, they were resting in the infirmary, when Wakaba came in, holding several things behind her back. Terazuma, she explained, was busy doing paperwork.  
  


The first thing that Wakaba brought out from behind her back was the minute owl that Watari carried everywhere.  
  


"003!," Watari cried happily as the little owl made her way over to him and began to preen herself on his shoulder.  
  


Tatsumi got a new briefcase, Hisoka got several books that he'd wanted, and Tsuzuki got a cinnamon bun.  
  


Later that night, Tsuzuki and Hisoka were the only ones awake, and they sat in their bed, talking.  
  


"Well, everything ended well after all," Tsuzuki said happily.  
  


"Not quite, Asato," Hisoka replied, pushing up his sleeve to reveal part of the curse, which glowed red. "Muraki's still alive."  
  


_________________________  
  


Well, there it is, I've finished it. I hope you liked it, and please leave a review on your way out.  
  


To quote Tsuzuki, "Sankyuu!"  



End file.
